Shade Tree Wisdom 5/14/09

So, do you make lists? Of things to do, or jobs to be tackled, or errands to run, places to visit, people to call. Does your computer automatically run such a list when you first log on in the day? Our day seems to be ‘list ready’, if nothing else. The ten most popular vacation spots, the wonders of the world, the finest restaurants in a city, the best barbecue in Texas etc.

I make lists when grocery shopping so I don’t forget a needed item, and I make it a rule to get only the things on the list and not be beguiled into buying items that catch my eye while shopping. Seems to me that’s only common sense.

The old adage is that 7 is the magic number, why? Because Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) said, “Nobody can remember more than seven of anything”. So we have famous lists of seven. The seven virtues, the seven sins, Shakespeare’s “Seven Ages of man”.

And the best way to make lists is to use the back of envelopes. Handy, makes it easy to keep the list short, handy to discard when the list has been used.

Lists don’t have to be vertical. In the eighteenth century sailors in the British navy would sign petitions of grievance in a circle so that the ringleaders could not be indentified. (We get the term ‘round robin’ from that practice.)

It might be of interest that the bible uses lists for teaching us. The list that comes to mind are the Ten Commandments. Other examples are Romans 12, first Corinthians 13, Galatians 5, (the fruits of the Spirit), Ephesians 6, the armor of God. There are other passages that list items in the process of growing in the faith. So bless the lists, and the learning from them.
GPD 5/14/09